Fungi are a global threat to human, animal, plant and environmental health. Fungal skin diseases affect 14% of the global population—approximately 1 billion people. Vulvovaginal candidiasis affects 70-75% of women at least once during their lives. Invasive fungal infections kill about 1.5 million people every year; most deaths are due to Cryptococcus, Candida, Aspergillus and Pneumocystis species. Fungal infections are also producing biodiversity loss at a global scale; examples include the possible extinction for some species of North American bats due to the ascomycete fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans and amphibians due to the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. Fungi have been estimated to cause 72% of all disease-driven extinction/extirpation of animal species and 57% of all disease-driven plant species extinctions/extirpations. Finally, fungal diseases are a major threat to food security. It has been estimated that even low-level persistent fungal disease among five of the most important crops (rice, wheat, maize, potato and soybean) would lead to losses sufficient to feed 8.5% of the world's population. Although unlikely, severe epidemics that would simultaneously affect all five crops would leave food sufficient for only 39% of the world's population.
The methods typically used to diagnosis invasive fungal disease (IFD) in humans are culture, biopsy, radiological imaging, and molecular/serological tests. At present, none of these methods are believed to produce results that that can be attained at or near the patient point-of-care (POC). Tests that may be completed relatively quickly (such as radio-imaging), suffer from a lack of specificity, whereas more specific tests (such as culture) take considerable time to produce a result. At present, antigen detection assays for IFD are limited to Candida and Aspergillus species (Platelia, Bio-Rad), and neither have gained widespread clinical acceptance. The development of a sensitive/specific POC assay to diagnose IFD would be a major benefit to patients worldwide.
A common feature of strategies to control fungal infections, whether in humans or plants, is the need to rapidly diagnose infection. Early diagnosis and timely use of antifungal agents mitigates the direct impact of infection, prevents the spread of infection, reduces opportunities for development of antibiotic resistance, and controls costs.
Thus, there is a need in the art for novel methods of fungal detection, specifically towards identification of fungi, such as from fungal infection or contamination, in a sample or subject. The present invention satisfies this need.